Friday 11th April 1919

Pte. Harold Deighton (see 3^rd March) wrote to the infantry Records Office in York,

“I am writing you in answer to your letter of the 10^th inst. Before being transferred to the 10^th Battalion Duke of Wellington’s I was in the 89^th Training Reserve stationed at Cambridge Barracks. Upon reaching the base in France I was transferred to the 10^th Duke of Wellington’s in June 1917. When I left my Battalion for leave in December 1918 they were in Italy, having served 13 months there, but from what I have heard they are now in Austria (some men from the Battalion were actually serving with 8^th Yorks. and Lancs. at Fiume, in former Austrian territory). I came on leave in December and on reporting back at Southampton I was sent home to get work with my old employer if it was possible. I was given a single railway warrant home and a ration book for a fortnight. My old employer wrote to the Local Advisory Committee in Scarborough to apply for me but since then we have heard nothing. I have written to the Record Office in York but got no reply from there. I have now been working for my old employer about six weeks having still over two years of my apprenticeship to serve as a bricklayer. I think this is all the information I can give you. Hoping you will do everything you can for me as I am badly in need of some money not having drawn any ration allowance or pay since coming on leave at first”.

2Lt. John Davis MM (see 27^th January) formally relinquished his commission ‘on account of ill health caused by wounds’.

2Lt. John Davis MM

Pte. Walter Robinson (15117) (see 16^th January) was formally discharged from the Army as no longer physically fit for service due to wounds (he had had his left leg amputated); he was assessed as having suffered a 50% disability and was awarded an Army pension of 27s. 6d. for three months, reducing thereafter to 13s. 9d. for life.

Ptes. Harold Atkinson (see 20^th September 1917) and George Lownsborough (see 4^th March) were officially transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z.

Pte. William John Martin was also officially transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z; he had originally served with 8DWR before being transferred (date and details unknown) to 10DWR. In the absence of a surviving service record I am unable to make a positive identification of this man.

Pte. Fred Smith (15149) (see 27^th August 1918), who had been serving with 3DWR at North Shields, was also formally transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z.

L.Cpl. Arthur Mason (see 9^th March 1916), who had been serving with the Northumberland Fusiliers, was also formally transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z; he was also assessed as having suffered a 40% disability (details unknown) whilst in service and was awarded an Army pension of £1 per week.

Pte. Norman Greenwood (see 25^th February), who had been transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z in February, was discharged from Keighley War Hospital, following six weeks’ treatment for chronic bronchitis.

Pte. Richard Swallow (see 7^th March), who had recently been transferred to the Army Reserve Class Z, was awarded a gratuity payment of £35; his claim for a pension had been rejected on the grounds that he had suffered no lasting disability.

An official report by the Directorate of Graves Registration and Enquiries confirmed that the remains of the late Pte. Wilfred Cornelius Allott (see 20^th April 1918), who had been killed in action on 20^th September 1917, had been recovered from an unmarked grave south-east of FitzClarence Farm, east of Ypres, and had been re-interred at Hooge Crater Cemetery.

A payment of £56 9s. 7d. was authorised, being the amount due in pay and allowances (including a war gratuity of £23) to the late L.Cpl. Dennis Waller DCM, MM (see 30^th October 1918), who had died of wounds at Edmonton General Military Hospital on 22^nd October 1918; the payment would go to his mother, Rose. She would also receive a package of her late son’s personal effects, comprising of, ‘cigarette case, metal mirror, clasp knife, note book, matchbox case, safety razor and blades, scissors, two rings, wallet, handkerchief, writing pad, letters, photos, cards, tin, soap, pass, belt with badges, metal chain and ring, shaving brush, cap badge, pair of titles, medal ribbons’.


A pension award was made in the case of the late Pte. George Binns (see 13^th July 1918), who had been killed in action in April 1918 while serving with 1^st/4^th DWR; his mother, Mary, was awarded 5s. per week, backdated to 6^th November 1918.

Pte. George Binns